Open Access Books by Irfan Shahid from Dumbarton Oaks

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 1, part 1, Political and Military History
is devoted to the main Arabian tribes that federates of the Byzantine
Roman Empire. In the early sixth century Constantinople shifted its Arab
alliance from the Salahids to the Kindites and especially the
Ghassanids, who came to dominate Arab-Byzantine relations through the
reign of Heraclius. Arranged chronologically, this study, the first
in-depth account of the Ghassanids since the nineteenth century, draws
widely from original sources in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. Irfan Shahîd
traces in detail the vicissitudes of the relationship between the Romans
and the Ghassanids, and argues for the latter’s extensive role in the
defense of the Byzantine Empire in its east.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 1 part 2, Ecclesiastical History
provides a chronologically ordered account of the involvement of the
Ghassanids in ecclesiastical affairs in the eastern region of the
Byzantine Empire. Tracing the role of Arab tribes both inside and
outside the Roman limes, Irfan Shahîd documents how the
Ghassanids in particular came to establish and develop a distinct
non-Chalcedonian church hierarchy, all the while remaining allies of the
Chalcedonian emperors. Ghassanid phylarchs such as Mundir emerge not
merely as loyal foederati but devout Christians. Shahîd
extensively and critically analyzes the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic
sources, including many obscure or unfamiliar texts to illuminate the
religious landscape of the Arabs of the sixth century.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 2, part 1, Toponymy, Monuments, Historical Geography, and Frontier Studies is
a topical study of the military, religious, and civil structures of the
Ghassanids. Irfan Shahîd’s detailed study of Arab buildings of the
sixth century illuminates how Byzantine provincial art and architecture
were adopted and adapted by the federate Arabs for their own use. As
monuments of Christian architecture, these federate structures
constitute the missing link in the development of Arab architecture in
the region between the earlier pagan (Nabataean and Palmyrene) and later
Muslim (Umayyad). Drawing from literary and material evidence, Shahîd
argues that the Gassanids were not nomadic, as traditionally believed,
but thoroughly sedentary both in their roots and in the late Roman
frontier zone they inherited. The third of four volumes dedicated to the
sixth century, this book extensively depends upon the previous two
volumes (volume 1, part 1, Political and Military History; volume 1, part 2, Ecclesiastical History).

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 2, part 2, Economic, Social, and Cultural History is
a topical study of Arab economic, social, and cultural history in the
sixth century. Irfan Shahîd focuses on the economy of the Ghassanids and
presents information on various trade routes and fairs. He reconstructs
Ghassanid daily life by discussing topics as varied as music, food,
medicine, the role of women, and horse racing. Shahîd concludes the
volume with an examination of cultural life, including descriptions of
urbanization, Arabic script, chivalry, and poetry. Throughout the
volume, the author reveals the history of a fully developed and unique
Christian-Arab culture. Shahîd exhaustively describes the society of the
Ghassanids, and their contributions to the cultural environment that
persisted in Oriens during the sixth century and continued into the
Umayyad caliphate.

Just as the Tanūkhids rose and fell as the principal Arab foederati of
Byzantium in the fourth century, so too in the fifth did the Salīḥids.
The century, practically terra incognita in the history of
Arab-Byzantine relations, is explored by Irfan Shahîd, who recovers from
the sources the political, military, ecclesiastical, and cultural
history of the Arab foederati in Oriens and the Arabian Peninsula during this period. Unlike their predecessors or successors, the foederati
of the fifth century lived in perfect harmony with Byzantium.
Federate-imperial relations were smooth: the Arab horse reached as far
as Pentapolis in the West and possibly took part in Leo’s expedition
against the Vandals. They were staunchly orthodox and participated in
two ecumenical councils, Ephesus and Chalcedon, where their voice was
audible. But their more enduring contributions were cultural, and may be
associated with Dāwūd (David), the Salīḥid king; Petrus, the bishop of
the Parembole; and possibly also Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem
(494–516), a Roman Arab. The federate culture gave impetus to the rise
of the Arabic script, Arabic poetry, and a simple form of an Arabic
liturgy—the foundation for cultural achievements in subsequent
centuries.

The fourth century, the century of Constantine,
witnessed the foundation and rise of a new relationship between the
Roman Empire and the Arabs. The warrior Arab groups in Oriens became foederati, allies of Byzantium, the Christian Roman empire, and so they remained until the Arab conquests. In Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century,
Irfan Shahîd elucidates the birth of the new federate existence and the
rise of its institutional forms and examines the various constituents
of federate cultural life: the phylarchate, the episcopate, the
beginnings of an Arab Church, an Arabic liturgy, and the earliest
attested composition of Arabic poetry. He discusses the participation of
the Arab foederati in Byzantium’s wars with her neighbors—the
Persians and the Goths—during which those Arab allies, most notably the
Tanūkhids, contributed to the welfare of the imperium and the ecclesia.
The Arab federate horse galloped for Byzantium as far as Ctesiphon,
Constantinople, and possibly Najrân in Arabia Felix. In the reign of
Valens, the foederati appeared as the defenders of Nicene
Orthodoxy: their soldiers fought for it; their stern and uncompromising
saint, Moses, championed it; and their heroic and romantic queen, Mavia,
negotiated for it.

The Arabs played an important role in
Roman-controlled Oriens in the four centuries or so that elapsed from
the Settlement of Pompey in 64 B.C. to the reign of Diocletian, A.D.
284–305. In Rome and the Arabs Irfan Shahîd explores this
extensive but poorly known role and traces the phases of the Arab-Roman
relationship, especially in the climactic third century, which witnessed
the rise of many powerful Roman Arabs such as the Empresses of the
Severan Dynasty, Emperor Philip, and the two rulers of Palmyra,
Odenathus and Zenobia. Philip the Arab, the author argues, was the first
Christian Roman emperor and Abgar the Great (ca. 200 A.D.) was the
first Near Eastern ruler to adopt Christianity. In addition to political
and military matters, the author also discusses Arab cultural
contributions, pointing out the role of the Hellenized and Romanized
Arabs in the urbanization of the region and in the progress of
Christianity, particularly in Edessa under the Arab Abgarids.

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This project began as a consequence of a series of conversations in 2010 between Charles Jones and Peter Magierski at NYU about the need for a tool to assemble and distribute information on open access material relating to the Middle East.